Hills off, as Owls hold on at Loftus

The Owls took an encouraging point from Queens Park Rangers after playing the final fifteen minutes with 10 men after defender John Hills was sent off. The former Gillingham man was given a second yellow card for a reckless challenge in a "moment of madness".

The dismissal capped off what had been a very frustrating night for manager Paul Sturrock who was forced to use all three of his substitutions because of injuries. Stand-in captain and midfield dynamo Glenn Whelan was forced off after just 20 minutes with a re-occurence of a hip problem, before both Lee Peacock and Drissa Diallo limped off either side of half-time.

Inbetween Wednesday's injury problems the Owls defended solidly infront of the live Sky Sport cameras. Rangers will know they had the handful of the better chances, Wednesday's best chance falling to David Graham who is yet to open his account with the club since a six figure move from Wigan Athletic.

Half-time: QPR 0-0 Owls

Paul Sturrock's post match comments:
"They worked very hard and put a real shift in tonight. This is a difficult place to come - a lot of teams will come here and lose - and we had a couple of half-chances at the end."

"We've worked hard on our shape when the other team's got the ball. Maybe we over-emphasised the defensive side but at least we came away with something. If we keep drawing our away games and put an edge to ourselves at home, we'll start climbing the league."